Simulation Room
by Calaeris
Summary: Reeve finds something in the database, gets overenthusiastic, and tells Cloud to come and look at it. Cloud gets the fright of his life, and not in a good way. This is a oneshot.


AN:// I wanted a fifth story on the site so that I could put myself up as a beta. I came up with this, after a few false starts. I wanted to write about Cloud, and it's difficult to write about Cloud without writing about being Cloud, and it's surprisingly easy to write about Zack. I knew that Reeve was going through records, and I knew that SOLDIER had a simulation area. My brain put the two together. I hope you like it, even though I wrote it primarily for the chance to be a beta which is where I think my talents lie (my fanfiction is rubbish compared to a lot out there).

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of it, I'm not making a proft from it.

BEGIN:

_Cloud was on his knees in front of the toilet bowl, heaving up the sandwich he'd had for lunch. He was down to dry retches and the occasional sob – he had the vague idea that the only reason he wasn't wailing like a newborn was because of the high likelihood of choking if he did so._

Since the revelation of the Tsviets, Reeve had continued salvaging the records in the ShinRa building and had recently, thanks to the help of Shelke, managed to hack into the remote servers that held backups of roughly fifty percent of the non-classified records. The majority was junk, and boring junk at that, but every now and then a gem turned up. Cloud really wished that this one had stayed hidden.

One of the things that they had found on the servers they had accessed was the information for the Simulation Room used by SOLDIERS for training. Reeve, because he was Reeve and hence somehow technologically gifted, had managed to make a visor from the blueprints that were found and had been testing it to see if it could be modified to teach other things than just fighting when something – someone – had appeared.

_Cloud had stopped retching and was full on crying now._

Reeve, in his infinite wisdom, had called Cloud immediately to invite him over to the WRO Headquarters without telling the younger man precisely what for. Cloud, used to Reeve by now, acquiesced and went along with Reeve's game.

_He was regretting that now._

Hooked up to the system, and listening to Reeve's chatter about how amazing a development this was, how interesting it was, and how Cloud would appreciate one program in particular, it came as a shock when the world filtered away to show a railway station in Midgar that had been destroyed in the Meteor Incident years back. Trusting Reeve when he said that it was a mere simulation (it beat the alternative theory, which involved Reeve, teleportation, and deals with hell) Cloud waited, hoping that this was not the "absolutely intriguing" thing that Reeve wanted him to see.

_It hurt thinking about it. Everything hurt, especially his throat and heart._

And all of a sudden, there was Zack.

_Oh god no._

He looked younger, without that cross-shaped scar on his face, but Cloud knew it was Zack all the same. His hair was cut differently too, but his eyes were the same bright and welcoming blue. He didn't have the buster sword either, instead carrying a two handed smaller sword on his back in the same manner as Cloud carried the First Tsurugi now. Not that he could carry it any other way.

_Cloud rested his head against the door, but his crying had changed._

Cloud wasn't sure what happened next, but Reeve was saying something about screaming, not that he could hear him with all the water in his ears, and then he managed to get to the nearest men's room before being violently and copiously sick. The visor had disappeared at some point, and with it had gone the copy of Zack.

_Perhaps it wasn't so much a tearing pain any more. Maybe it... maybe, it was a healing one. Like a bone being set, or the feel of the needle sewing up a wound. Truth be told, Cloud couldn't remember Zack's face too well – not from before his death. He could remember bits and pieces, a smile, the colour of his eyes, his height, his hair cut – all the pieces that theoretically made up "Zack Fair", but just couldn't seem to fit themselves together in any kind of order._

_This vision of Zack was before everything. Sephiroth had been sane when that was made. Zack had only recently made SOLDIER First Class. Genesis was simply another, albeit powerful, First Class. Vincent might still have been in his coffin, but that was it._

_Tears drying on his face, Cloud used toilet roll to wipe his face, and went to the sinks to wash his mouth out. And he realised – he was now allowed to remember Zack without the bullet holes, and without the pain. This Zack belonged to before that, when he was a recruit and hadn't met Hojo outside of a lift._

_Maybe Reeve knew what he was doing, after all._

_Wincing at the thought of going out, and not quite sure that he was ready to anyway, Cloud sat on the floor and sighed, collecting himself back together again. He just hoped Reeve hadn't called Tifa._

AN:// I really like reviews, but I don't mind if you simply read and enjoy either =)


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